David76

Anthem combines third-person shooter and action role-playing game elements in a "contiguous open world" shared with up to three other players in which they take the role of a Freelancer donning fully customizable exosuits called Javelins. These suits can be customized to have various unique weapons and superhuman abilities. Two classes of Javelins were shown during Anthem's presentation at Microsoft's E3 2017 Conference: the Ranger, which is an all-around and balanced Javelin, and the Colossus, which is a larger and more heavily armoured Javelin made to fill in more of a tanking role. Other Javelins include the Storm, which uses powerful technology to unleash the "rage of the hymn" while floating effortlessly in the air, and the Interceptor, which is focused on close-quarter combat and can move quickly into and out of combat.

Players can build relationships with various non-playable characters, but they cannot establish romantic relationships with them, as was a trademark of previous BioWare games.

The central meeting point of the game takes place in Fort Tarsis, the central stronghold of Anthem. Built by the eponymous General Helena Tarsis, it serves as a fortified settlement against the threats of the outside world and is also the point where the player goes to receive new missions and freelance assignments. It is a melting pot where all the different factions of the game meet, including the Sentinels, Corvus, Cyphers, and Arcanists.

The game features both single-player and co-operative multiplayer elements in a "shared world" that can have up to four squad members per team. Teams can fight savage beasts and ruthless marauders while exploring lost ruins and experiencing massive, world-altering terrain occurrences, such as "Shaper Storms".

Major Tom

Electronic Arts has released a teaser trailer for Anthem ahead of EA Play later this month. More information on the game will be released at EA Play on June 9.

Here is a press release with a list of what will be shown at EA Play:

1. A New Trailer

That's right, we're delivering an unseen trailer that delves into the dangerous world of Anthem. You'll get a glimpse into the story, characters, and monsters that bring the game to life.

2. More Gameplay

Last year we showed off some of the core gameplay that you can expect from Anthem – flying, fighting, and of course, collecting loot. And this year we're happy to show off some more. Tune in to see it all.

3. Combat Showcase

One thing we'll be showing in-depth this time around is combat. The power of the Javelin exosuit will be on full display as players take on the most ferocious enemies seen yet.

4. Developer Insights

The dev team at BioWare has been hard at work, and now they're ready to show it off in-person. Hear some of the guiding principles that have shaped the development of Anthem as BioWare General Manager Casey Hudson, Executive Producer Mark Darrah, and Lead Writer Cathleen Rootsaert take the stage.

5. A Look Behind The Curtain

Along with hearing from the developers themselves, we'll be showing off some of the concept and production art of Anthem. You'll get a chance to see the craftsmanship that has built this incredible world from the ground up.

Anthem is in development for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows PC.

Major Tom

Despite being a shared world game where players will be able to interact with one another, BioWare's Anthem will not have PvP at launch.

The news comes by way of BioWare executive producer Mark Darrah who answered some questions about today's Anthem reveal at EA Play 2018. Darrah told one fan who asked whether PvP will be in the game that it won't be available at launch.

Player vs Player, or PvP, is when players online can fight one another. Darrah leaves the door open for PvP to come to the game post-launch. In fact, extensive post-launch content is one of the promises BioWare made during its extended look at the game this morning during EA Play.

One feature that won't be coming to Anthem is romance. BioWare confirmed to Game Informer that kissing your fellow NPCs will not be available in Anthem. Instead, you can be friends with them, but that's not a great consolation, to be honest.

Major Tom

During BioWare’s Anthem-focused panel at PAX yesterday, the studio revealed a new trailer and screenshots for the upcoming shared-world action game.

Much like the BioWare’s focus on narrative during the panel, this new trailer, entitled “Our World, My Story” tells more about how the game will combine a focus on narrative while simultaneously offering players the ability to explore and complete missions with others. The trailer also showcases a variety of new action sequences as well as the many locations and creatures that you can fight.

The latest trailer for Anthem shows more of how the narrative will interact within a larger...

With the new screenshots, we get some better looks at the central hub of Fort Tarsis in addition to many of the characters that abide in this location. Characters that we have previously seen such as Haluk are shown here once again in addition to faces that we haven’t seen as often such as Matthais and Yarrow.

Anthem is due out on PS4, Xbox One, and PC early next year on February 22. It was also announced that an all-platform demo will be available on February 1.

Major Tom

Bioware intends to continue the storyline of Anthem post-release, but it won’t charge you any more money to experience it.

Speaking at PAX West today, the developer said that although players will be able to buy cosmetics and gear if they want to, anything related to its story must be available for everyone to access.

Bioware intends to continue to support Anthem after release with more story content and other end game DLC in order to keep the game alive for months. Mark Darrah, executive producer of Anthem at Bioware, also reiterated there will be no loot boxes, and any cosmetics that players can buy with real-world money can also be earned through play.

“First, so, no loot boxes,” said Darrah. “There will be some cosmetic stock that you can pay for but it will always be earnable.”

“For storytelling, we don’t want to divide the audience, we want people to be able to experience the same stories so none of that is going to be locked,” said Darrah during a question and answer session with the audience.

Endgame content for Anthem includes attacking strongholds – tough raid-style four-player challenges that will require teamwork and planning against some of the game’s hardest adversaries. Mike Gamble, lead producer, said that some of the cosmetic rewards for completing those challenges will still be available elsewhere in the game, but high-level gear and weapons will be limited to strongholds.

“From a cosmetic perspective, yes,” said Gamble when asked if the coolest cosmetics can be earned without completing the hardest endgame challenges.

“But obviously gear and weapons you’ll have to earn. You can grind for those. But there will be some content that will be locked behind challenges. Strongholds will give certain things,” he said

Major Tom

Bioware has also detailed how it intends to deliver a single-player story in its upcoming multiplayer loot-shooter Anthem.

Speaking at a panel at PAX West today, the studio revealed that all of the crucial single-player story decisions will unfold in the game’s hub world, known as Fort Tarsis.

It’s in Taris where the player interacts with multiple characters and storylines, makes decisions that effect changes to character relationships, follows branching narratives and experiences the kind of single-player role-playing game expected from a Bioware game. Tarsis is also where you’ll pick up missions in-game.

Those missions then take place outside of Fort Taris in the wider open-world of Anthem, where players team-up to defeat enemies and earn loot to customise their character builds. Although some missions will be tailored to the story and there are lore treasures in the online open-world, little of the game’s storyline will change until players get back to Tarsis having completed missions.

In Taris players will engage with other characters and it’s here we saw a first look at the traditional Bioware dialogue trees, with players able to pick a dialogue choice using the left and right triggers. For those that don’t want to delve deep into the RPG experience, players can trigger a mission briefing panel and get straight back out into the open world to continue with the online play.

But Bioware is going all out with Fort Tarsis, where it intends to create a rich world full of character and role-playing opportunities.

It said it’s trying to create a “living community” within Tarsis, hoping players will develop close bonds and relationships with its characters.

Major Tom

The latest gameplay video for Anthem shows off every ability and ultimate that each Javelin type will be able to utilize.

Gameplay footage for Anthem has been sparse over the past few months, but today we’ve received a rather helpful new video that should make deciding what Javelin you want to use in-game a bit easier. Courtesy of IGN, a new Anthem video has now been released and with it, we can see every move and ability that each of the game’s four Javelins will have at their disposal. The Ranger, Colossus, Interceptor, and Storm Javelins are all featured and we get to see the three distinct movements that each class boasts. Additionally, this video also shows off each Javelins Ultimate ability along with the different styles of flight that each will have.

Major Tom

Bioware has showcased quite a lot of new gameplay of its upcoming online action-RPG Anthem.

Level Designer Sabrine Rosgren and Lead Producer Matt Gamble showcased some gameplay that “May or may not” be featured in the upcoming closed alpha.

We get to see the Freelancer Enclave in Fort Tarsis and the Markets guarded by the Sentinels. We even see the ability to add records to the Cortex, which is basically Anthem’s version of the Codex. Those areas are the only ones that will be available in Fort Tarsis during the alpha.

After that, we see conversations, the Vault, the forge, and a cutscene. Unfortunately, the stream was having some technical problems with dropped frames, so BioWare had to end it prematurely. That being said, it’s an alpha version, so this kind of issue is to be expected, especially considering that the graphics settings were cranked up to Ultra.

Interestingly, we learn that our story choices during missions in Anthem won’t affect gameplay in that specific mission (while decisions made in Fort Tarsis when you’re on your own will indeed affect your story), because players in the same session can take different decisions, so implementing them all would be impossible.

We’ll also be able to help different factions (the Freelancers, the Arcanists, and the Sentinels). Doing so will provide unique rewards tied to each faction.

Taris will also change with time, but BioWare isn’t ready to talk about how just yet.

Another treat is a look at part of the game’s map in the mission selection menu, which you can see below.

Today Electronic Arts and BioWare opened registrations for the closed alpha of the upcoming online action-RPG Anthem.

The form can be found here, alongside a handy FAQ to guide you through the process and to inform you about a few caveats.

Anthem’s closed alpha will run across two days, Dec. 8 and 9. There will be multiple sessions per day, and they’ll be available on all platforms, PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Each player can register only for one platform.

Pre-download will be available for those accepted in the alpha but do keep in mind that there is an NDA in place, so you won’t be able to stream or share anything about what you’ll see, at least not without risking to piss Electronic Arts off.

PlayStation Plus and Xbox Live Gold are also required if you want to take part in the testing sessions on PS4 or Xbox One respectively.